The rumor panned out. Jimmy Buffett will make his annual trek to Detroit this year but instead of playing Pine Knob, he’ll take the Lounging at the Lagoon Tour to Comerica Park.

Detroit, MI
Saturday, July 28th
Comerica Park

Tickets go on sale Saturday, May 12th at 10 am via www.Tickets.com, the Comerica Park box office and charge-by-phone (866-668-4437). Prices will be announced in coming days.

Buffett’s DTE shows have typically sold out within minutes. Capacity will be about 40,000 for the Comerica Park date, said Olympia Entertainment president and CEO Tom Wilson.

Buffett, 65, has played only a handful of stadium shows during a four-decade touring career.

“He’s always been capable of doing a show of this magnitude. It was just a question of him getting comfortable with it,” Wilson said. “He started playing stadiums in the recent past, and part of the reason you start doing that is because there’s this incredible demand.”

A daylong “Buffett’s Beach Party” will be held on the grounds outside Comerica Park, where a lounge, margarita tastings, midway games and other frills will be in place for the legion of partying Parrothead fans.

It’s been over a month since we first reported the likely date for the Alpine Valley show and today it’s finally confirmed:

East Troy, WI
Alpine Valley Music Theater
Saturday, August 25th

Tickets go on sale Saturday, May 12th at 10 am.

Jimmy Buffett was back in New Orleans on Thursday night where he played an acoustic show with help from Mac McAnally and Sonny Landreth. The concert included the debut of a new song entitled “Serpentine”:

A new composition called “Serpentine” made its world premiere at Jazz Fest. It celebrated Mardi Gras with an ambling, bluesy arrangement: “Two weeks out of the year, it’s all about sin….count me in.”

The Times Picayune has a great writeup on the show:

Seated center stage, surrounded by an arsenal of stringed instruments, Buffett showed up for work barefoot, in shorts, a purple polo shirt, sunglasses and a baseball cap. At his side was Mac McAnally, a member of the Coral Reefer Band and an acclaimed country songwriter and instrumentalist. Lafayette’s Sonny Landreth, another frequent collaborator, alternated electric and acoustic slide on some songs; a percussionist also helped out.

With the Coral Reefer Band, he generally closes out a Saturday at Jazz Fest. There was far more available real estate at the Acura Stage for the unplugged, weekday Buffett show than last year’s fully amped, weekend show. He reveled in the change in latitude, if not attitude: “It’s great to be playing ‘locals Thursday’!”

Noting that “we’re playing a home game tonight,” he sprinkled his set with references to Werlein’s, Morning Call, Cochon, Frenchmen Street and his pal Sean Payton. “This is where it all started. New Orleans was my Paris before I got to Paris.”

Read the full article here.

The ribbon-cutting is nearing for Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville Casino and Restaurant in Biloxi. The Sun Herald reports that the casino will open May 22nd.

Once the VIP celebration gets under way at 5 p.m., the resort opens to the public at 8 p.m.
Buffett says he will be in Biloxi that day, said casino president Tom Brosig, but he’s saving some surprises for the opening.

There are still plenty of finishing touches to be completed before the $62 million resort makes its debut. Fifth Street, which will provide a tropical entrance to the resort, is nearly rebuilt and should get its first layer of pavement this week.

The Biloxi property is the first stand-alone Margaritaville Casino, and it’s built in the city where Buffett played his first professional gig. Brosig said about 24 investors are part of the project and 20 percent to 30 percent of them are local.

This is the ninth casino Brosig has opened. “I’m expecting big things for this property,” he said. Marketing started this week and the website goes live Friday.

Read the full story and view a photo gallery here.

When summer tour stops started being announced, press releases sent to local newspapers mentioned that a live CD/DVD combo recorded in Las Vegas was coming this summer. We’ve now got a few more details on this.

“Welcome to Fin City/Live from Las Vegas Oct. 2011” will be released Tuesday, June 19th. You can pre-order now at Amazon.com.

Amazon’s description:

Margaritaville/ Las Vegas breaks the Guiness Book of World Record for the largest Margarita The Margaritaville Casino opened in the Flamingo Hotel, next to the Restaurant and Store And, Jimmy performed 2 incredible Saturday night shows at the MGM, which have been captured in Audio, Video, and Blu-ray. We have taken the best of both shows, and made 2 great packages for Father’s Day, 2012. Both packages contain the same audio and video songs.